


when the moon shines the brightest (it's always with you)

by cerikino, MysNyasper



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst, Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pre-Timeskip, Slow Burn, Spoilers for Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), art included and drawn by mysnyasper, it's the whole shebang!!, minimal spoilers for bl and gd routes, sun & moon references, the two of them are v oblivious for each other hehe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-08-18 20:08:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 19,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20197441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cerikino/pseuds/cerikino, https://archiveofourown.org/users/MysNyasper/pseuds/MysNyasper
Summary: "Sometimes in the darkest of nights, the moon is still able to light up the sky. How is that possible?"Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd is only a seventeen-year-old boy who has gone through the darkest of days and nights throughout his entire life. He's known as the crown prince of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus with darkness looming at his side. There are moments where he finds himself alone in this pitch black void."It's because the sun is always there to help it shine at its brightest."Yet there's Claude von Riegan, the heir of the Leicester Alliance, who manages to find his way in the dark and to him.In other words, they're like the sun and the moon, finding each other even in different places.





	1. azure moon - midnight activities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unable to sleep after a terrible nightmare, Dimitri is found outside with his lance. Claude also happens to be there.

The night sky was illuminated with the glow of the burning flames. It burnt so strong and rapidly that the moon was obscured from view by the billowing smoke. Out in this blaze, there stood a young child with blond hair and bright blue eyes. He seemed no younger than thirteen and his small frame was placed in front of unsightly wreckage. There were multitudes of soldiers who were slumped over and staining the dirt with their crimson blood. None of them seemed to move. Not a single breath escaped any of their lungs. It terrified him. Despite the burning flames behind him, all he could feel was the burn of the cold engulfing his heart.

The screams mixed with battle cries surrounded him at every angle. These sounds made his head hurt. Not only that, the fire reaching closer behind him gave smoke a chance to grasp at his throat. Although, these sights would be nothing compared to what he was about to witness. With fear being his only source of motivation for his feet to move, the child ran until he was forced to stop dead in his tracks. There he stood in front of the entrance, his frightened blue eyes staring down the hallway littered with bodies. What he saw there would haunt him forever. Upon the center was a figure dressed in red with a gleaming sword in hand. Had the child known that weapon would be stained in a few seconds or so, he would have looked away. Yet, his eyes would not stray away. The figure stood in front of a man, unable to get up, whose weapon was knocked from his grasp.

The young boy instantly recognized the man and before the boy could open his mouth, the figure clad in red stepped forward with the sword raised above their head.

It only took a swift motion for that sword to be covered with blood, allowing the light in the victim’s familiar blue eyes to disappear.

“Father-!”

Dimitri’s body convulsed forward as his eyes shot open, his hands tightly gripping the blanket draped across him. He forced his mouth to clamp shut, preventing the scream that desperately tried to escape from his throat. The blond took in quick breaths instead, the moment still so utterly fresh in his mind. Dimitri dragged his hands against his face and let out a shaky breath. Another nightmare of what haunted him most. His body trembled and the house leader could feel himself breaking out in a cold sweat. Dimitri’s blue eyes darted across his room, regaining his sense of his whereabouts. The terror and pain plastered upon his face were reminiscent of the times when he witnessed the tragedy of his father’s murder four years ago. It always managed to sneak in and haunt him in his slumber.

As his breathing returned to its normal cadence, Dimitri was, first of all, relieved that he didn’t wake up screaming. He would prefer not to explain the reason why he woke up Felix and Sylvain, who slept in rooms next to his. Word would’ve come around quick that the crown prince of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus had woken people up to the sound of his screaming. That alone would've made him to crawl into his bed and never leave again. Dimitri allowed himself to sink back into his bed with his blond hair pressed against the pillow, but he couldn’t find himself drifting back to sleep. Laying bed only allowed him to mistake shadows as _ those _ figures he feared so much as a child. Dimitri desperately needed to think of something else that could take his mind off of this and allow him to go back to sleep. There just so happened to be something that came to mind.

It was likely the most ungodly time to spar with a practice dummy in the training grounds, but the blond was unable to think of anything else since this activity usually allowed him to unwind during rough times. With a quick rub of his eyes, Dimitri immediately slipped out from his bed, his bare feet gliding across the blue carpet and wooden floors in order to get to his uniform that sat nicely on his desk. Even if he was considering to only take a short moment to train, he’d prefer not to have someone find him with his spear while wearing night clothes. He **was** the prince, so in any occasion, he should always look his best no matter what. 

Quietly as he could, he headed down from his room after changing into the typical blue and black garb other students at Garreg Mach would find him wearing. It was still night, so the air was a bit chilly. He wasn’t going to risk himself getting sick in the morning, so he planned not to stay outside _too_ long. With his lance in hand, he cautiously peered around the monastery, hoping that his footsteps wouldn’t bring attention to anyone who happened to still be awake. 

Making his way towards the training grounds, Dimitri was met with a familiar face within the corridors of the school. It was a face he wasn’t expecting to see at all during this time of day.

“Dimitri? I would’ve never expected you to be awake at this time.”

“I could say the same for you, Claude."

Claude von Riegan was the boy he spotted standing out in the open, his body leaning against the building with the moon shining down on his face. Dimitri was startled because he rounded the corner and was immediately greeted with the sight of someone standing there. With the look on Claude's face, he could tell that Claude also felt the same at first, with the shock being prevalent on the brunet’s face before it melted into his signature grin.

The boy's eyebrows quirked upwards in response. “I mean, am I the guy who has his lance in hand like he’s ready to fight?” Claude questioned, his hands on his hips as his grin widened. It was like Claude to tease him like this, even if it was during a mock-battle during class or honestly, anywhere else. Of course, that was the nature of Claude himself.

“I am just getting some training done. On the other hand…” Dimitri trailed off, taking a moment to glance around the area around them, “... what are you doing here?” Had Claude expected to meet up with someone? Or was there the possibility that Claude was scheming something else? Dimitri wasn’t really sure since Claude was known for risky decisions and strategies.

“Just enjoying the night sky, y’know. The stars are out and the moon’s shining its brightest tonight without any clouds, so I decided to hang outside for a while,” Claude responded, crossing his arms before letting his head rest against the thin stone column behind him. “I was just about to go in, but I didn’t expect your Princeliness to be awake to beat up some training dummies at this time.” 

Dimitri never really took Claude as being a person who liked stargazing, but he guessed that was something new to learn about the leader of the Golden Deer. Although, stumbling upon Claude at this time put him in an awkward position, especially since Claude mentioned that he was about to return to his room. 

“Oh, then I apologize if I was interrupting you in any way,” Dimitri stated, his face flushed with embarrassment. Just before he was about to take his leave, Dimitri was stopped when Claude shook his head and let laughter spill from his lips.

“You weren’t interrupting anything! If I were to be honest, it’s nice having another person around, Dimitri,” Claude stated, a hint of a smile tugging at his lips. “I don’t mind staying a little longer if you would like to chat, that is, if you’re okay with it.”

Dimitri found Claude staring towards his weapon that he was grasping in hand. Right, his main intention of sneaking out his room was to kill off some steam via beating up some poor practice dummy. But, with Claude’s offer to stay, it didn’t seem like it could do any harm. He could spare a moment for Claude, even if it was during these ungodly hours of the day.

“...I suppose I could stay here for a short while." He watched Claude's small smile stretch into a smirk, in which Dimitri only guessed that Claude was already thinking to try and rope him to stay with him as soon as they met. With this realization, Dimitri winced as he was misguided by the schemer's words once again. At least he didn't slip up during a battle or some sort. Claude would never let that go because it _ definitely_ would've just added to the list of things Claude could tease him about.

Now, Dimitri just awkwardly stood there in front of Claude, shifting his weight back and forth on either foot. Sure enough, he wasn't used to this, having his plans be derailed for something that, _admittedly_, didn't seem so important at the time. But, he couldn't take back what was already said, so now he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do.

Claude raised an eyebrow in confusion before letting out a laugh. Alongside that smile that always shone so brightly, even in day or night, the brunet gestured the prince over with his hand. "What are you doing standing there? I don't bite, your Highness," he remarked, covering his mouth to prevent himself from laughing when Dimitri let out a sigh.

"I―Claude..."

With that, the blond found himself leaning against the adjacent side of the column Claude was standing against, the shadow of it obscuring most of his body. The sharp point of his lance glimmered in the moonlight as he held it loosely at his side. He could hear shuffling from where Claude stood and the prince brought attention towards him; he who was just illuminated in the bright rays of the moon.

“Mmm… so your Royalness, were you planning on getting some extra training in because of what Teach told us yesterday?” Claude inquired, peeking over the corner to look Dimitri straight in the eye.

It was rumored upon students and faculty that there was another mock battle about to take place. The specifics of it were simple: a battle between the three houses out on an open field. Yet there was a twist on the mechanics of the battle. Byleth had pinched in her two coins by making it a more strategic battle, which seemed a bit too ironic for Dimitri’s liking. That was due to the fact that Byleth was currently teaching the Golden Deer. It would inevitably be in Claude’s favor despite how many risks he was willing to take. With this advantage, it was typical of Claude to question him of this, for the yellow-clad leader always was two steps of everyone else.

Yet, that wasn’t the reason why he was here in the first place. Even though everyone in Fódlan knew about the fate of his father and stepmother, Dimitri never found the topic to be something he could talk comfortably with others. Sure, it happened years ago, however the memories and trauma were as fresh as the dew of the morning. With the chronic nightmares and guilt crawling up his skin at night, he needed a way to escape. Even if it meant he was often covered in a dark shroud all alone.

He broke away from the eye contact between them first, twirling around his lance as if he were to distract himself, “Well, I wanted to be prepared and ready for the battle. Besides, I couldn’t sleep,” he responded. Admittedly, it was much of a lie, but Dimitri wanted to chase away the nightmare that plagued his mind. Not only that, he did not want to burden Claude with his own traumatic events at this time. 

The blond could see the other boy frown at first when he spoke about how he couldn’t sleep. Yet, it soon melted away when Dimitri took the hilt of his lance and poked Claude’s side, allowing a jolt to come from the brunet's body that surprised both him and Claude. Dimitri didn't even expect this reaction, for he didn't have a clue about it. He held no malicious intent towards Claude, but Dimitri would be lying if he said he didn't definitely had some suspicions on all of Claude's questioning right now. What better idea was it for Dimitri to take a page out of Claude's book by teasing him this time around? Sure, it wasn't quite _princely_ of him or himself at all, however with Claude's personality, it could be that the archer's antics were beginning to rub off onto him. Dimitri slightly raised an eyebrow and leaned towards him, "Are you trying to build some schematic to defeat me in the mock battle? Is that what you are doing? I would have expected you to execute something like this more discreetly, Claude.” 

“Gah―_hey!_ T-That’s ticklish!” Claude exclaimed in a hushed voice. He held the side Dimitri poked with one hand and kept another hand in front of him, trying to protect himself from any other attempts Dimitri would try against him. His green eyes were wide open as he was thrown completely off-guard. By all means, Dimitri never really pulled off a stunt like this before. Claude didn't even **know** Dimitri had it in him either. “I was genuinely curious, y’know? Like I mean, it’s one thing to see the crown prince of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, _Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd_ walking around with a weapon in hand in the dead of night. It’s very much a startling image―!”

“You have quite the image of me as the prince, do you Claude?” Dimitri questioned, interrupting Claude with another light jab of his side. He never knew that Claude had ever seen him in this way. But putting more thought into it, things did make a little more sense with the nicknames the brunet gave him and Edelgard.

The sight of Claude's response towards his actions started to amuse him, for he found out the heir of the Leicester Alliance was ticklish as ever. He was acting innocent here, it was _originally_ supposed to be a simple touch on the side with his weapon's hilt because he had seen Claude tease others like this. He didn't know that Claude was just weak to it as a whole other number of people were. His own amusement fought to show up on his face, knowing that with this newfound knowledge of being able to make the house leader a flustered mess, could be used in a various number of ways. Dimitri even considered that this could be used to his advantage for the mock battle, though there was no way that Dimitri would ever be able to get as close as he was right now on the field. He also couldn't continue teasing people for a long period of time. Guess the prince would just have to leave it as something he rarely saw with his own two eyes. But, it just goes to show that Dimitri could pull off his own schemes if he wanted to. They just would never have the vicious bite that Claude carried out with his own plans.

Yet that happiness faltered, as he soon realized what Claude's words meant. Hesitant this time around, the blond let out a quiet exhale before he spoke again. “I never expected you to think so highly of me either.”

Admittedly, out of all the things that the blond talked about with Claude, that was the very moment where he was the most genuine. Claude always tended to joke with him when he gave Dimitri one of the large assortment of nicknames. Yet now, it just showed that Claude really did see him as the a prince rather than an equal. If anything, Dimitri always wanted the opposite. He wanted to be like everyone else. Just because he was the crown prince, it meant he had to see people suffer under his gaze. He was only just one person. One person who was put above thousands of other people who were out there suffering alone. Someone who had already had blood on his hands. Now with all of that, did he really even deserve all of what he ha been given?

The prince, who never had to shiver outside in the cold during Faerghus's extremely cold winters, sometimes **hated** his position.

Lips pulled into a bit of a frown on Claude's face. “Well I mean― Hey, hey wait! This is _seriously_ unfair!” Claude jumped from his spot against the pillar, both hands trying desperately to keep the hilt of Dimitri's lance away. As much as he tried to explain himself for once, he was quick and smart enough to realize Dimitri was just trying to divert his attention.

For Dimitri, he was really just trying to take his mind off of what Claude previously told him. As he did with most people, the prince never liked burdening others with his own problems, so he would hide it if he was given the chance to. With that, he allowed blue eyes to meet green eyes in the moonlight.

“I do not remember saying that it was fair in the beginning. Did you?” 

"I didn't―hey, wait a second... you're taking a page out of my book, aren't you? Not going to lie, I feel a bit flattered."

"Perhaps so."

Claude was able to dodge Dimitri's next hit, but this time he got his hands on the hilt of Dimitri’s spear. With a quick tug, the brunet dragged the blond out of the shadows and onto the grass of the courtyard. It almost caused Dimitri to lose a hold of his grip and make himself fall over. With surprise prevalent on his face, Dimitri assumed that the archer had been working with other weapons besides his bow because he couldn't remember the last time Claude caught him off guard like this.

A mischievous grin washed upon Claude’s face, his hands still on the end of Dimitri’s spear. Now he had the upper hand. Dimitri had only been distracted enough for him to at least manage a decent plan. Which was, to basically make Dimitri eat his own words. 

“Your defenses were _wide open_, your Princeliness,” he said with a wink, looking utterly pleased with himself.

Dimitri let out a huff of amusement, the tiniest bit of mirth pulling itself across his features. “Using my own words against me, Claude? I assume you are trying to provoke me again like last time.”

The brunet raised an eyebrow upwards and grinned while he tightened his grip on Dimitri’s lance. “Hey, what can I say? I _ definitely _ work fair and square all the time.” 

Their intentions were blatantly obvious, both of them were trying to throw the other off guard, however it was sooner than later that Claude tried to pull another trick. Dimitri was prepared for it. It was just that he didn’t expect his counterattack to work so effectively. Since Claude was still much more of a bow user and Dimitri was experienced with a lance, it immediately meant that Dimitri was the one who truly had the upper hand. Not only that, Dimitri would also sometimes forget about how strong he was.

That strength was sorely tested when Claude tried to tug forward again and Dimitri pulled back in almost a swinging motion. Completely thrown off balance, Claude found himself stumbling to the side with his hands still wrapped around the wooden pole. He basically was tripping over his own feet, but it didn’t mean that Claude couldn’t drag Dimitri down with him.

They landed on the grass side by side with Dimitri’s lance falling onto them in a rather ungraceful manner. Byleth would’ve shaken her head in disappointment at the sight of them like this. The weapon clanged against Dimitri’s armor and he hurriedly grabbed it, worried that the sound of it could attract someone to come over and find them. With his hands being able to have a hold on it, he took it and discarded it to the right of his body.

“Aagh… I really do forget how strong you are sometimes.” Claude rolled onto his side, rubbing the elbow he landed on the way down. From how strong the impact was when Dimitri brought them down, he assumed a bruise would form on his arm later in the day.

Dimitri looked over at the brunet and allowed himself to let out a short fit of breathy laughter, “Did you think you could win a battle of pure strength against me?” he inquired, laying back down onto the ground. Here, blue eyes met green ones with a simple turn of his head. “I assume you have forgotten our past mock-battles have ended like this before, unless you were considering to pull one of your schemes on me,” he added, lips showing the slightest bit of a smirk. Well in terms of what the blond meant, those battles ended with Dimitri winning, not both of them on the ground because they had a childish tug-of-war session with Dimitri’s lance.

Claude’s eyebrows furrowed as he pointed straight at Dimitri himself, “Hey, if you gave me another second or two of you being distracted, this roguishly handsome boy would’ve beaten your Royalness without lifting a finger.”

“Well... you just lifted a finger.”

“I―_seriously_ who taught you this?! You learned this from Felix, huh? It’s not very _crown prince of Faerghus_ of you.”

“Perhaps. He _ is _ one of my childhood friends, Claude. Although I will leave it up to you to decide if I learned it from Felix or not, just knowing you. Yet, I apologize if I seem like I am going too far.”

The brunet sighed hopelessly, draping his arm across his face, “What will I do when all of the Blue Lions basically become the same person?” he stated dramatically, a grin twitching at the corner of his lips. “Oh well, I’ll just have to beat them in battle with the Golden Deer." Claude peeked under his arm, letting out a huff of laughter at Dimitri's apology. "Also, don't worry about it. I think I like seeing you like this anyways."

“If that’s even possible. I find the Blue Lions to be a very strong and worthy house,” Dimitri responded, clasping his hands on top of his stomach. He felt his face burn at Claude's response, unable to form any other words to say back to the brunet. Thoughts of him overstepping and saying too much was all pushed off the table at the sound of Claude's reassurance.

Claude chuckled in response. “That sounds like something a father would say to his kids.”

Dimitri bit his lip. Being reminded of his father again brought back those cruel memories, even though Claude meant no harm. It hurt to think that every thought of his father just brought him back to that terrible day. The day of where everyone he loved was lost.

"Err... hey, are you alright? You’re spacing out.”

“Huh? Yes, I’m fine, no worries. I was just lost in thought.” 

It was partially a lie.

Not wanting to bother his mind about it anymore, Dimitri allowed himself to focus upon the bright moon glowing in front of them, the rays illuminating both him and Claude. The Golden Deer leader wasn’t kidding about how beautiful a night it was. With all the stars surrounding the moon ever so clearly, the sight was almost gave off an intoxicating feeling. A soothing sight it was indeed, for now he understood why Claude liked it so much. Yet, his curiosity peaked, his blue eyes making way towards the other male. Claude had laid back down on the grass to take the sky in again and all was on his mind was:

“Claude, why do you like stargazing so much?”

For a second, Claude looked a little speechless and it seemed like he was looking for words to describe stargazing for him, however a toothy smile soon washed across his face.

“Well, it’s hard for me to really describe well in detail, but I can say that stargazing clears up my mind,” Claude paused for a moment, before outstretching his left hand up towards the sky. “I’ve also read something about the moon, the sun and the stars. In a way, the night sky reminds me of all of us, I mean, us and the _entirety_ of Fódlan.”

“How so?” Dimitri inquired once again. It wasn’t often that he would find a moment in time to talk to Claude like this. Since they were both in separate houses and house leaders as it is, their conversations usually consisted of battle strategies and meaningless taunts against each other’s house. This whole different angle was something that Dimitri thought was very interesting.

“Well, the sun always tries to shine its brightest every day, right? It’s up there in the morning sky until the night comes and the moon finally appears.” Claude smiled a bit before continuing, “Though, the sun’s task doesn’t stop there. Even though we can’t see it at night, it’s what helps the moon shine so brightly in the night sky.” 

Dimitri could see Claude’s face change into something much more serious, which was different from the typical, mischievous Claude everyone at the monastery could see. Claude seemed so passionate about his thoughts, especially since it was something that would benefit not only himself, but for the future of Fódlan. Dimitri sought it out as a rather admirable trait of the Golden Deer leader.

“I kind of admire the sun, y’know? I want to help people to be at their best. Sure, the moon isn’t always shining brightly as it is right now every night, however I want to be the sort of person who is going to help people if they are stuck in a bad place. I just want to be able to unite people for one good cause.” Claude took a moment to glance towards Dimitri, “And y'know, you see the stars, right? The stars remind me of you, me, Edelgard and all of our friends. We're here to grow into people who fight for what we believe is right, aren't we? Sure enough, we come from the three different regions of Fódlan, however our ambitions overlap. Even though there are people who do of what is the unjust and evil... we will be the ones who'll keep the moon company in the dark.”

Speechless. It was the only word Dimitri could find to describe himself in this very moment. Had he known Claude, the typical trickster, kept such eloquent words so deep in his heart, Dimitri would have definitely seen him in a new light. With this newfound shock and information, Dimitri took a moment to realize he had been staring at Claude this entire time. In fact, he only snapped out of it when the brunet shifted and decided to sit up. Embarrassment flooded his cheeks in the shape of a blush and he turned his head away since Claude basically caught him.

“I apologize for staring. I was enamored by the fact that I had never seen you so… _ so _ passionate about something.”

Claude chuckled at the sight of such a flushed Dimitri, his green eyes twinkling with amusement. The brunet shook his head in response and a blush was beginning to form across his own face, for there were times where Dimitri would shamelessly blurt out the most embarrassing things without realizing. 

“No worries, I don’t often bare my own thoughts around you or Edelgard since we’re all in separate houses, let alone being opposing house leaders too. It only makes sense that you can’t understand the great schemer himself,” Claude stated with his signature wink. He leaned in Dimitri’s direction, a finger pressed upon his own lips. “Also, this is a bit of a secret activity of mine, so you can declare yourself to be a lucky person for stumbling upon such a handsome man as myself like this.”

“I _suppose_ I can believe you, if what you are saying is truthful for once.” Those blue eyes of his shone with slight gaiety at the sight of a disgruntled Claude. It wasn't often that Dimitri found himself not handling work from the monastery or things relating back to the Kingdom. Nonetheless, it... it felt nice to act like he didn't have a care in the world for now.

“Ha, ha. Not funny, didn’t laugh,” the brunet said with an over-exaggerated and dramatic roll of his eyes. Claude leaned back into his spot and allowed his hands to prop himself up, his eyes glancing back at the night sky that was littered with stars. Although, right about when he opened his mouth to say something towards Dimitri, he found himself letting out a loud yawn instead. 

“Feeling tired?” Dimitri questioned, reaching over his side to pick up the lance he moved off of them earlier. Both of them were out here for a while and especially at a time so late, goddess knew what time it was at the moment. Dimitri had considered that the two of them should head back to their respective dorms before they would end up waking up in the morning and finding themselves out on the grass.

“Mmm, guess so. Finally feeling the sleepies after being out here so long. Should head back,” Claude responded before getting up onto his feet and patting away any dirt or grass that stuck to his clothes. The house leader glanced down at the weapon the blond held in his hands.“And besides, you were still planning to do some late training right?”

Oh right. Dimitri had gotten so caught up talking with Claude that he forgot that he was going to go train. But if he were to be honest… he really didn’t feel like it anymore? Being out here and talking to someone on a night where the sky was absolutely beautiful gave Dimitri a moment in time to clear his mind. In fact, it was so effective that he wasn’t even thinking much about his nightmare anymore.

“I… have come to the conclusion that I will save training for another day or in the morning. It is already rather late.”

“Oh? Well, I hope I didn’t mess up your plans… unless maybe that is part of my own plan. Who knows?” Claude remarked with a slight laugh. “Either way, I’m heading back now to my room. I assume you are too?”

“The more you keep talking about this Claude, the more I will be alert during our mock-battle,” Dimitri warned in a joking manner, getting up on his feet and dusting off his own clothes of any grass that stuck to him. “I am planning to head back as well. Seemingly with how late it is and for how long we were out, it is best to return to our rooms.”

“Alright then! Just don’t poke me again when I’m not looking because I don’t want to arrive to class with a hurt arm in the morning, your Princeliness.”

It was a quiet walk, the only noise being the breeze flying by every few minutes and the clacking of their boots touching the ground. Eventually they made it up to the second floor of dorms, hoping that no one would end up waking up and stumble across them. They weren’t supposed to be out anyways. The two of them headed on back to their respective dorms, which were only separated by one room: Felix’s, which was right in between them. Dimitri knew Felix was a light sleeper, so he hoped that they weren't making such a racket.

Claude walked towards his room and took a hold of the doorknob before he looked over at Dimitri with a small smile. Turning the knob, he opened the door and allowing it to creak open. "Alright, seems like our time tonight is done. I hope you have a good night and sweet dreams, your Majesty," he whispered with a wink.

Dimitri nodded, quite unfazed by what just seemed like Claude's twentieth wink of the day, for the brunet always acted like this with everyone else. His position mirrored Claude’s with his own door to his room, hand gently clasping around the doorknob. “You too, Claude. I hope we both get enough sleep to be relatively awake in the morning," he responded. They were remarkably still conscious even at a time like this. Dimitri even found himself to be a little surprised for he never found himself to be awake _this_ late.

Claude let out an airy laugh. “Hopefully, we can. I’ll see you bright and early in the morning then.” Claude shot the other a wider grin before he soon entered his room and closed the door behind him. Dimitri could hear the slight click of Claude’s door being locked before following suit.

That moment he spent with Claude out there on the grass, it felt surreal. Just going outside to beat up a pitiful-looking practice dummy turned into having a bit of a heartfelt conversation with Claude. Even though his main ambition rested on distracting himself, the things he had learned about Claude could be considered as a nice addition. In a way, it almost felt like the two bonded. Dimitri would never phrase it as that, for it was way too embarrassing. Yet, thank the heavens for allowing him to meet Claude today, for all these nightmares to plague his mind this past month… he just wanted to leave this dark void. His escaping methods always resulted with a lance in hand and the broken figure of a dummy, so having a talk with Claude out there was definitely a nice alternative.

A sigh escaped from his chapped lips, finally feeling the tiredness weighing him down. Placing his lance down at his bedside, he slipped back into his night clothes before crawling back into his bed. Dimitri pulled the royal blue blanket over his body as he laid down and pressed his head against the pillow, his eyes already starting to droop. With his worries gone for the moment, it only took a few seconds until he was finally to lull himself back to a sleep without nightmares.

By people of Fódlan, it was said that the moon on that very night had never shone so brightly in a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi there!! im ceri and this is like my second time posting on ao3!! i dont actually own fire emblem three houses and my co-author/beta/artist (mysnyasper) is like on her blue lions route soooo theres bound to be some canon breakage ;; but i hopefully i am able to get a sensible grasp on each chara's personality!!
> 
> also if you guys play fe: heroes, "gah―hey!!" is like claude's injured noise and its great haha
> 
> anyways art was provided by my best friend, mysnyasper !! without her i wouldn't be able to get so far with this first chapter! check her out at mysnyasper (tumblr) and @mysticnyasper (twitter)!!


	2. azure moon - a coat of radiant gold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The prince is unable to stop his face being set ablaze today by his friends and his own actions alike. Somehow, the archer happened to be the focus and reason for a few of them.

“Sylvain, we are _ not _in the mood for your antics today.”

Dimitri awoke to chatter outside his door and footsteps tapping across the wooden floor. Opening his eyes to reveal blue irises underneath, he was met with the sight of sun rays shining down upon his face. A bit of a sigh escaped his lips and he draped an arm over his eyes. What was usually a welcome sensation in the morning became something that burned his eyes with the loss of sleep. His late night conversation out on the courtyard with Claude lasted longer into the night than the blond was accustomed to. Sure, there were times where training sessions started and ended at the most ungodly times of the day, but being human and let alone the _ crown prince _ , a healthy sleep schedule was needed to be kept in check. Although sometimes, he would find himself out of his own bed. Despite sneaking out in the middle of the night was always frowned upon when he was a child, let’s say he didn’t _ always _ listen. 

The blond shut his eyes for a moment, allowing himself to stay in the comfort of his bed for a little longer. He couldn’t stop himself from focusing on voices that lingered outside his door though. Felix’s voice was what initially woke Dimitri up, nonetheless he presumed that Felix only walked past his door. Despite the fact he could barely hear them, Dimitri could identify what was Sylvain’s voice, whose words were followed and ridiculed by Felix’s and Ingrid’s snappy tones. Knowing the three as childhood friends, Sylvain probably did something to tick the other two off. Perhaps Sylvain was caught being a bit of a skirt-chaser again. 

A yawn pulled itself from his mouth and Dimitri soon realized he should’ve gotten out of bed earlier. He would need to start preparations for the school day or chances he might end up drifting back to sleep. For him to be late for class due to him oversleeping would be something Felix would never lay rest to. It was unlike him to run late, since it was Sylvain would usually be serving this role in class. However, Dimitri wasn’t perfectly and he admittedly had his moments sometimes. Besides, for what he already knew of his professor, Dimitri would greatly prefer that Hanneman’s warnings and lectures on tardiness would sit out today. 

For the second time today, the blond changed from his night clothes and into his school uniform. He clasped the buttons shut and pinned the ornate accessories into place on his clothes. His long royal blue cape draped itself against his body as Dimitri tidied his own bed. He also tried his best to adjust the messy bed hair he woke up with too. An attempt, he could say, to make it seem like he woken up hours ago instead of minutes. With everything done and proper and a quick once over he left his room with a turn of his doorknob.

“So your Highness has finally been aroused from his slumber, huh?” 

It was not even a few minutes after Dimitri closed his door for Sylvain to come around and put his arm over the blond’s shoulder. A mischievous looking grin was very much plastered across the ginger’s face. Dimitri didn’t particularly like this look coming from Sylvain because it usually meant he was itching to ask something of him. That is, Sylvain never asked anything substantially _ good _ for Dimitri to answer. Woe is him.

“Yes, good morning Sylvain. What is it you may inquire from me today?” A quiet exhale pulled out from his lips, his expression already turning weary from what he was about to hear come from Sylvain’s mouth.

Thankfully Felix and Ingrid made their way over before Sylvain could phrase his question in the worst way Dimitri could ever imagine.

“Sylvain’s been pestering us on whose got you back in your room late at night,” Felix stated, successfully cutting off an open-mouth Sylvain from speaking any further. “And yes, _ boar prince _, you managed to wake both of us up. A reminder for you to know that the walls of the dormitories are thin.”

Sylvain frowned in Felix’s direction, his face starting to pull into a pout, “Aw— come on Felix! I wanted to ask him myself…”

Dimitri winced, an apologetic look washing over his face. He came to the assumption that Felix and Sylvain would be in too deep of a sleep to hear him and Claude enter their rooms. Unfortunately Dimitri realized that wasn’t the case. He should’ve known better on Felix being a light sleeper, regardless for now, he’d keep this duly noted for the next time he found himself outside. Dimitri bowed his head forward as if he was a puppy caught in a notorious act.

“My utmost apologies. I assumed that you and Sylvain were already in the comfort of a deep slumber. I will try to the best of my ability to prevent that from happening again in the future.” 

Felix let out an exasperated sigh, a hand coming up to press a knuckle against the bridge of his nose. The corner of his lips pulled down into a frown. “You are truly living up to your ‘boar prince’ title. Amusing as it is to see you own up to something as stupid as this, I would be _ greatly _ pleased if you were—“ 

“—Not to sweat it!” Sylvain exclaimed, successfully interrupting Felix this time around. Dimitri could see the sheer satisfaction across the ginger’s face, which contrasted greatly with Felix’s greatly annoyed look. 

With Dimitri’s attention redirected at Sylvain, the ginger continued to interrogate him, with him throwing out questions here and there. 

“Now, your Highness, who’s the girl whose got you wrapped around her finger? Do I know her? Is she from the Blue Lions? Come on, you can tell me!” Sylvain teased before flashing a toothy grin. “If you won’t tell me, I’ll get it out of you somehow!” he remarked before he tightened his grip around the blond’s shoulder and began to tousle Dimitri’s hair. This allowed Dimitri to elicit a yelp of surprise from his mouth before he could say anything in return.

“S―Sylvain!”

“Come on, your Highness! There’s no reason to hide if I can help you get her!”

First of all, there was no girl or anyone that made his heart flutter in the name of love. Dimitri didn’t even understand how him leaving his room immediately meant he was with a lover. Understandably, this was Sylvain he was talking about. His flirtatious personality was the basic nature of the ginger, he was the only one of the four who would ever get to say that he flirted with Ingrid’s grandmother. It wasn’t like he would publicly admit his mistake though; his excuse always on the lines of, “I didn’t know! If I see a pretty lady, she’s a pretty lady!” Was it a grave mistake for Sylvain say this? Yes, indeed. Dimitri was all too familiar with the moments where Sylvain would blow the fuse off of Ingrid with a few simple words.

Sylvain started to list names of their fellow female classmates, nevertheless Dimitri didn’t keep pay attention on every name. Being withheld in the prison of his friend’s grasp, he hung from the taller boy’s arm like a limp noodle. There was no point for him to pry himself from Sylvain’s grasp because knowing the ginger, he would nag Dimitri until he got an answer.

The taller boy rubbed his chin. “Hmm… What girls are you close with, Dimitri? Perhaps, Edelgard? I could see that. Didn’t you give her a dagger when you were a kid as a parting gift? How about Marianne? Maybe it’s her.”

Dimitri’s face burned at the mention of the dagger he gave to Edelgard as a child. He was young and he thought it kept good symbolism! What was wrong with that?

“You dunce. Why would he tell you that?” murmured Felix, his tone sounding absolutely exasperated.

“It was worth a shot! Especially just _ knowing _ Dimitri.”

First of all, what did _ that _ mean? Dimitri’s eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly, unsure of the implications Sylvain was talking about. He wanted to question it, but Sylvain looked like he was about to answer the question himself.

It was never answered in the end. 

Even though the prince declined the fact of even being in a relationship before, Dimitri still noticed that he was habitually shaking his head at every girl’s name the taller boy guessed. How could Ingrid deal with him every time he tried to mess with her? Even though they were childhood friends and all… Dimitri tried his best to work and deal with a skirt-chasing Sylvain.

Speaking of Ingrid, Dimitri noted that she kept silent all this time, even before she and the other two boys approached him at his door. A visible frown pulled at Ingrid’s lips, concern laced in her green eyes, however the look on her face wasn’t meant for Sylvain. With her arms crossed and her sharpened gaze, Dimitri realized Ingrid’s attention was truly focused on him. The look of suspicion on her face didn’t settle with him and he looked away. Sylvain ended up catching this small interaction.

“Oh, your Highness! You can’t tell me that it’s our own Ingrid herself!” 

Then Ingrid threatened to push Sylvain off the stairs.

Luckily, the heir of House Gautier lived to see another day. That was mainly due to the fact that Dimitri and Felix intervened just in time to prevent Ingrid from making their group of four into a group of three.

Descending downstairs from the dorms, Dimitri was walking side-by-side with Ingrid with Felix and Sylvain in tow behind them. They were heading off to the dining hall for breakfast, nevertheless Felix insisted that he didn’t want Dimitri next to him. Stubborn could be used to describe Felix and his strong dislike towards the house leader. Yet as usual, the blond avoided any chance of creating a fuss with Felix and obliged, leaving him no choice, but to walk next to Ingrid. Sometimes it surprised Dimitri that this was the same Felix who he’d playfully spar with using wooden swords during their childhood days. How cruel was it for time and war to make them become so distant as friends? 

Although, he knew and understood why Felix grew to dislike him so much and he left it at that.

Dimitri felt someone place a hand against his shoulder, effectively breaking his train of thought. Of course it was Ingrid with the same concerned look she gave him earlier. She took a quick glance at the two boys behind her, both who were distracted and engaged in a conversation about who knows what before she leaned close to Dimitri.

“Are you alright? From what I heard and what Felix and Sylvain said… it sounds quite unlike you.” She stayed silent for a moment, biting her lip before she spoke again in a much more quieter tone, “Are you still suffering from those nightmares?”

Dimitri pulled away from the eye contact, lips slightly parted as he tried to think of what he could say. A few years ago, Ingrid witnessed him; a sobbing mess late into the night, startled awake by a nightmare that was a recollection of horrid memories. They were still so young, _ too _ young to experience the pain of death and war. Though, they were forced into this corner anyway. At that time, Ingrid was there to console him, to be at his side as he let the tears seep out from his eyes.

Apparently not much has changed since then. 

“I…” Dimitri looked down at the floor guiltily, for he didn’t want to burden Ingrid with his own problems despite the fact that she had already known about this before. 

Ingrid’s face gave him a look of pity at his response. He didn’t want to be given pity anymore.The reason why he arrived at Garreg Mach was to get stronger and achieve his goal of revenge for his father and stepmother. Dimitri didn’t want to be known as the poor boy who lost his parents at a young age. Nor did he want to be remembered as the “sole survivor of a terrible tragedy”. Dimitri wanted to get the revenge he craved, even if it meant there would be blood on his hands. As long as it was the blood that would give him his justice, he would be pleased. It didn’t mean that he would stop hurting though.

“I just… I…” Why was it so hard for him to form words? To say yes? He always struggled on showing emotion.

She cut him off before he could say anymore, her gaze softening as if she understood him without needing words. “I know this is always hard for you converse about, but if anything, Sylvain, Felix and I are always there for you. Yes, I agree that Felix is hard to talk with now, however deep down, I know he still cares.” Ingrid put a hand on his shoulder before giving him a small smile. “Remember that, alright?”

Dimitri’s blue eyes widened and it was the second time this day that he was completely lost for words. His cheeks flushed pink, Ingrid coddling him made him feel a child, but her words were comforting. He ever so slightly nodded his head, whispering a “thank you” quiet enough for only him and her to hear. 

“Are you sure you two aren’t a thing?” Sylvain questioned, interrupting whatever conversation Dimitri and Ingrid had. Earlier, he had stopped talking with Felix when he noticed the two blonds close to each other. Right away, he moved up behind the two with a smirk on his face and draped his arms over his friends.

Ingrid immediately pushed Sylvain away and her expression was replaced with one that the three boys were all too familiar with: a face of absolute irritation. “I see him like a brother, so you trying to even _ think _ of us being together is absolutely _ nauseating _, Sylvain. Now, I’m surprised to see that you haven’t left us yet to go after a girl since you’re so curious.” Her green eyes narrowed as she crossed her arms, “Now if you will excuse me, I’ll go ahead and have a nice chat with everyone else.”

With a dramatic pivot of her right foot, Ingrid left the three at the entrance of the dining hall and went to the near end of the room, where the Blue Lions usually crowded around every morning.

Sylvain smiled sheepishly as he watched Ingrid walk away. His hand rubbed the back of his neck. “Too far?”

“When is it ever _ not _ too far with you, Sylvain? You should’ve seen it coming,” Felix responded with a jab of his finger in the ginger’s direction. “Ingrid can deal with you to a certain extent. Be glad that you haven’t broken the two of us yet.”

“I presume we will have to work on your manners again, Sylvain. However, we may have to wait another day or another time to do so,” Dimitri remarked with a sigh. The last time he tried to help Sylvain out with manners wasn’t a very glamorous sight. It _ might’ve _ ended in a woman’s husband chasing Sylvain down at insane speeds. Never did Dimitri ever see the ginger run so fast and for a long period of time! Although, he couldn't tell if he was proud of Sylvain for working on his stamina or absolutely mortified that Sylvain did absolutely everything he told him not to do. However after resolving that issue, the two of them promised to never talk about it ever again.

“Alright, alright, whatever your Highness says,” Sylvain said in a defeated manner, not realizing the nickname made Dimitri frown a little. “Now can we meet up with everyone else? I’m starving!” 

Per Sylvain’s request, the three of them agreed and made their way to the table where most of the Blue Lions gathered at, their arrival allowing the group grow to seven people.

“Your highness,” came Dedue’s deep voice. He stood next to the table, his hands clasped together in front of his body as he gave Dimitri a slight nod of his head. “Good morning.”

The prince glanced upwards at his retainer and nodded back, “Good morning, Dedue. Had everyone been waiting long?” 

Dimitri assumed that Dedue waited for his arrival with how the taller man stood and positioned himself next to everyone else. Even though Dedue swore to be the loyal retainer the prince always knew, Dimitri had his moments where he felt deeply sorry for him. Dedue was committed to being his shield, but it didn’t mean that Dimitri wanted Dedue to feel that he was obligated to throw himself in the line of fire every waking second. Not only that, Dimitri wished that the older male dropped the formalities. They were friends after all, yet it always seemed like it was a tough habit for Dedue to break out of. Although, that was the case for all the other Blue Lions as well.

“No, your highness, we have recently made our way here. It seems like Ashe has yet to arrive though.”

“Is that so?” Dimitri inquired, pondering on what Ashe could’ve done so that he wasn’t with everyone else. Usually the silver-haired boy was one of the members in the Blue Lions to arrive first. “I question about his whereabouts… It is unlike him to be tardy.”

“I put my trust into Ashe that he will arrive on time for class. Perhaps he had stayed up the day before. If your highness would like, I would take a visit Ashe’s room to see if he is awake.”

“It is alright, there is no need. You are right about Ashe. I suggest we should wait and see if he arrives. As well, I assume you haven’t eaten yet, Dedue.”

Dedue kept silent before he grunted and the taller man finally sat down alongside everyone else. Dimitri knew his friend, he wouldn’t allow himself to indulge in things unless Dimitri did so first. Despite countless times of the prince telling him that it was alright, Dedue wouldn’t budge. With how long both him and Dedue had been friends, the blond already knew Dedue hadn’t eaten yet way before they even engaged in talk.

Seated at the table was Mercedes, Annette and of course, Ingrid, who left them earlier in a strong manner. Dimitri happened to notice that they were all indulged in a conversation about something while eating out of their bowls of food, but they weren’t facing in their direction, so they had yet to notice the three boys. Dimitri, Sylvain and Felix pulled chairs out in order to sit down next to them, but somehow he had gotten himself sandwiched between Ingrid and Sylvain. Felix muttered to him that it was for the best because as soon as the three boys sat down, Ingrid began shooting death glares at Sylvain. Knowing her, it would be a while until she would settle down. 

“Oh? Your highness! Sylvain! Felix! I’m glad to see that you three have joined us! Ingrid, Annie and I were just talking about the next mock battle,” Mercedes remarked, her kind eyes sparkling in the light as she showed off a sweet smile. “Aren’t you excited?”

Mercedes’ motherly instincts took over, as Dimitri realized that she was serving each of them a bowl of gratin. In more than one way or another, Dimitri would sometimes be reminded of his own step-mother whenever Mercedes acted like this. In fact, it would make him crave and miss the affection of his parents.

But wait, first things first: the mock battle. Dimitri hadn’t figured out a plan just yet. He usually was quite prepared before every one of them, but he was so swarmed with his studies and work, that he did not find any time to think of anything. It would be much to his chagrin if he told the Blue Lions that he had nothing just yet, especially with how curious they looked.

Felix let out a loud exhale. “I would be, although I heard it was rigged in favor of leader Deer Boy over there,” he mumbled, propping his elbow up onto the table before he rested his chin on his palm. He gave Mercedes a nod of thanks as he poked at the cheesy dish. “It’s something suspicious when Professor Byleth is the one to bring it up in the first place.”

Sylvain’s head perked up a bit from his own bowl that he was eating from. Swallowing his bite, the ginger spoke. “I heavily doubt that Professor Byleth would be swayed by Claude so easily. If anything, I _ definitely _ have more game than Claude does.

Ingrid rolled her eyes at Sylvain’s statement. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” she muttered, harshly stabbing her food with her fork.

Sylvain scoffed, throwing his arms up dramatically, “I haven’t even once seen the guy with a girl!”

“We haven’t even seen you _ stay _ with just one girl,” Felix retorted, immediately countering what Sylvain said as soon as the words left his lips. 

“Hey! What can I say? I have my reasons! Also, I am _ quite _ the ladies’ man," Sylvain responded with a grin.

At that very moment, groans of exasperation exuded out from both Ingrid and Felix’s mouths.

Dimitri pulled his attention away from everyone else to look over at the table in front of theirs. Just like his friends to argue with one another. Specifically Ingrid and Felix being upset at Sylvain though.

Dimitri peered over to see that there was Claude standing and talking with Marianne and Hilda. He stood with that certain confidence exuding from him, where body weight was slightly shifted to one leg while his hand rested on his right hip. The brunet spoke enthusiastically to Marianne and Hilda, but it only seemed like Hilda was the only one to reflect the same amount of energy back to Claude. Unfortunately for Marianne, she seemed a bit overwhelmed with everything and could only find herself talking in bits and pieces of the conversation.

Of course, the blond couldn’t hear what they were saying, for the dining hall was filled with chatter and loud noises. However, it didn’t matter to him because it wasn’t like he was planning to eavesdrop. That would be something that _ only _ Claude would pull. _ Only _Claude. 

The blond watched the brunet tilt his head back ever so slightly to let out a laugh. For how long he was keeping his eyes on the leader of the Golden Deer; Dimitri was basically zoning out while staring at him. It was just because he came to remember when the two of them met at the courtyard earlier. Dimitri almost couldn’t believe that the Claude he saw out there was also the same Claude who would pelter others with his endless teasing.

It was an odd feeling for sure.

Suddenly Claude's eyes met with Dimitri’s and he waved a hand to catch the blond’s attention. With great surprise, Dimitri jolted out of his trance and a smile spread across Claude’s face as he shot the prince a wink. Mortified for being caught zoning out and staring at Claude for the second time in the same day, Dimitri broke away from this eye contact. He shook his head and let out a loud exhale, ridiculing himself for his shameful behavior. Not often did he go off staring into space… perhaps the loss of sleep was getting to him.

There were reasons why Dimitri didn’t allow his curiosity to get the best of him. It was only _ just _ a quick glance, but he brought himself to peek back in Claude’s direction. Now he was sure that Claude’s laughter was _ definitely _ directed at him now. As much as Dimitri thought staring was rude, Claude had gotten a bit of a laugh out of it. What a fool of a prince he must’ve looked.

By pressing a hand against his burning face, Dimitri tried to handle the blazing blush forming across his face. If only he could reverse time to stop him from doing such embarrassing things today. Not daring to look back at Claude, he prevented himself from trying anything else foolish and attempted to ease back into the conversation with the Blue Lions.

Realization soon set in though. Ingrid and Sylvain sat right next to him, so either of them could have seen how much an idiot he made himself. He knew that Ingrid wouldn’t say much about it, but well, Sylvain was always another story. Not giving it much thought, he decided to shove the cheesy delight he always loved straight into his mouth, hoping neither of them saw anything. It _ might’ve _ looked a bit suspicious, especially with Dimitri’s face flaring up a brilliant red as he swallowed his bite.

The prince could see Annette whine about something Felix said to her, which Dimitri didn’t catch in time.

“Do you think we’re able to beat the other two houses then?” Annette questioned, a frown pulling at the corners of her mouth. “I really wanted to see that prize though!”

“Well, it solely depends on what strategy we will carry out.” Felix glanced in Dimitri’s reactions, giving him the same sullen look that graced his features everytime he was near the blond.

“Perhaps your Highness has a strategy to lead us to victory?” Sylvain questioned, nudging Dimitri’s arm with his shoulder. He arched an eyebrow upwards, looking curious on what the blond would say, but he was interrupted by the groan from Felix. The ginger huffed in amusement, “Unless you want to go with Felix’s idea.”

He almost choked on his food right then and there. With Sylvain’s words, he noticed the entirety of the Blue Lions looking at him expectedly. 

Annette seemed the most fired up out of everyone else though as she leaned forward on the table, anticipation prominent on her face. “What do you have, your Highness?”

If only someone could come out of nowhere and knock him out, saving him from whatever nonsense he was about to sputter out.

He wasn’t listening to what any of the Blue Lions said for a good chunk period of time. Now he was forced to choose between the options of saying that he had nothing on him or try to make up something driven by his own self-consciousness in order to save face. He didn’t want to let them down nor did he want to come up with a crude plan either. In the end, neither of these options were in his favor.

Yet he spoke faster than thinking.

“Y―Yes. I have a plan for the mock-battle later this week,” Dimitri blurted out, dropping his fork into his bowl as he tried to think of something off the top of his head. Why did he say that? If only he caught hearing Felix’s idea, he could’ve been able to build off of it, but since he was _ too _distracted, Dimitri didn’t have a single thought of strategy or plan in store.

Annette’s face brightened, her lips quirking up into a toothy smile. “So, then let’s hear it! What better time than now to talk about it?” 

He needed to stall for a while, he just needed a little more time to make something that seemed relatively realistic and possible to work out at least. He could be vague, as Dimitri still had time to work the kinks out, so it didn’t need to be completely fleshed out just yet. 

“Well first of all, I would like to have everyone present to discuss about our strategy. It seems like Ashe hasn’t arrived yet―” And then much of Dimitri’s surprise and agony, Ashe ran through the doors of the dining room and to their table at record speed. By word of the Goddess, did he do something wrong to deserve all of this today?

“―I’m sorry!” exclaimed the young boy. Out of breath he was, for he leaned forward on his knees and tried to catch his breath. “I.. I was looking for my notes I took during class! Yesterday, I was up late trying to finish up all my work, however I couldn’t find the last pages of what I scrawled down,” Ashe explained with dramatic gestures of his hands. He coughed a few times before Sylvain reached over patted the younger boy’s back in an attempt to help the silver-hair boy catch his breath.

A little shocked everyone was, first of all, see Ashe in such a disheveled state and secondly to coincidentally arrive at the mention of his name. Admittedly so, none of it compared to the complete stress Ashe had indirectly placed on Dimitri.

“I really wanted to go outside to see if I left anything outside, nevertheless it was already too late and I didn’t want to get caught. I even heard footsteps walking upstairs and downstairs,” Ashe continued, straightening up as he finally caught his breath. “It was also really dark… I didn’t want to encounter a ghost or anything!”

Sylvain tried his best not to laugh at the sound of a “ghost” while Dimitri winced inwardly. Those footsteps were probably him and Claude going up to their rooms. Although no one needed to know about that. For one thing, he would know that Sylvain would never stop asking him about it, and secondly, word in Garegg Mach got around fast. Lady Rhea would greatly discipline both of them for sneaking out of their rooms. Yet that wasn’t important right now, for the entirety of the Blue Lions was together. Now the rest of them were definitely looking forward to Dimitri’s _ grand _ plan.

“Did you find your papers though, Ashe?” Mercedes asked, her motherly instincts kicking in once again. She reached over to her bag, her hands ready to pull out her notes from the inside. “If anything, I can lend you mine if you need them.”

Ashe shook his head, “Ah, thank you Mercedes! But no worries, I found them! Professor Byleth ran up to me earlier when I was looking for them and told me that she discovered them out on the courtyard.” He pulled out his own notes, which were wrinkled a bit, and waved in front of the Blue Lions as evidence. “It’s amazing how Professor Byleth has such a knack for this! Somehow she’s able to find all of these lost things and then return them back to the original owner with such ease.”

“Ah! Well, I’m glad you were able to find your things, Ashe! Luckily for you, Dimitri was just about to tell us what we are all going to do for the mock battle,” Mercedes responded, turning her head back around, directing her attention back at Dimitri.

Dimitri could feel a nervous laugh bubble up in his throat. Right. He still had no idea what he was going to do for the Blue Lions. He couldn’t even think of a single thing and he usually was able to conjure something up at this point.

He opened his mouth to speak, not even ready for what he was going to say, but found himself being immediately interrupted by the loud echoing sound of school bells. The deep resonating sound rang throughout the school, signaling students should start to depart towards their classrooms. With that, Dimitri was greatly relieved that he didn’t need to kill his dignity for the third time today. Surely the goddess was smiling down at him for now.

Dimitri bowed his head, “My apologies, it seems like we will have to find another time to discuss this as we ran out of time.” With his head down, the rest of the Blue Lions were unable to spot the relief across his face.

Sylvain groaned. “I would’ve wanted to know now rather than having to sit through a lesson first,” he murmured, the ginger slouching as he stood up from his seat.

“Oh no, your highness! It’s alright! We have plenty of time to figure things out,” Mercedes said reassuringly as Annette nodded in agreement.

Felix groaned for what seemed to be the umpteenth time today. “Yeah, yeah, pick it up later. Professor Hanneman will lecture our ears off if we don’t get a move on.”

“Felix is right about that! I was late to class once and Professor Hanneman wouldn’t stop talking about crests and I was so tired and―oh.” With his face flushed dramatically, Ashe put his hand over his stomach. He happened to be interrupted by the sound of his stomach grumbling. “Sorry, I came too late and I didn’t have time to eat.”

This ignited light laughter in the group, though Sylvain’s was the most boisterous of them all. During the ruckus, Dedue tapped Ashe’s shoulder and extended his hand. In the taller man’s palm was a bowl of the gratin that was served for breakfast earlier. It was noted by Dimitri that Dedue hadn’t talked much the entire time.

“I saved you a bowl in case you did not come to the dining hall in time. If you eat quickly enough as we walk to class, it’s possible that you will finish eating before we enter the classroom.”

Dimitri could see Ashe’s eyes sparkle as he happily took the bowl from the taller boy’s large hand. “Truly my savior, Dedue! Thank you!” 

The prince swore that he had seen the tiniest bit of a smile pull at his friend’s lips. 

Yet, with the subject changed and everyone filing out of the dining hall, Dimitri sighed in relief since he didn't have to come up with a plan on the spot. Any plan coming out of his mouth would’ve been doomed straight from the beginning anyways.

The lively chatter of the Blue Lions and other students filled the hallways of the school. Annette and Mercedes were talking a storm about what could the prize be for the mock-battle while Felix, Ingrid and Sylvain were putting bets on who would be knocked out first out of the three during it. Both Felix and Ingrid agreed that it would be Sylvain, in which the ginger greatly protested. Dedue happened to be walking alongside to Ashe and was the only one witness to see the boy literally stuff his face full of food.

Dimitri lagged behind the rest, however Dedue and Ashe was only a few steps away from him. He was more focused on thinking up a strategy when he felt someone bump shoulders with him, specifically by someone who was wearing a yellow cape.

“Good morning, your Princeliness.”

Claude grinned when Dimitri finally looked up. He spoke in that usual joking tone, “Is our dear prince still being affected by lost sleep? I saw you earlier, if you didn’t notice.” There was obvious sarcasm at the very end of his words, regardless Dimitri already knew that Claude meant no harm. Yet it did stir embarrassment into the pit of his stomach, knowing that the Golden Deer leader definitely watched him make an idiot of himself.

Dimitri let out a loud exhale, face slightly tinted with a blush. He, admittedly, was a little surprised on how alert and energetic Claude was. The two of them _ did _sleep at the same time, right? He could only assume that the brunet stayed up much more often than he did, therefore was familiar with these circumstances.

“I do not particularly stay up as late as you do, Claude,” Dimitri remarked, looking straight into Claude’s eyes this time around. A peculiar moment to realize it now, yet Dimitri never noticed how vibrant of a green Claude’s eyes were until he saw them up close in the morning sun. Though those blue eyes pulled away from those sharp green eyes, his attention panning to his friends in front of him. He definitely did not want to be zoning out again, especially this close. Clearing his throat, he continued on. “In fact, I would say that I have not been accustomed to that kind of schedule in a long time.” 

A loud exhale came from Claude’s mouth this time around. “Because our Prince Charming has to work on his royal duties, am I right?” Claude followed up, his hand clasping over Dimitri’s shoulder. A frown, over exaggerated and all, split across Claude’s face. “All work and no fun.” 

Dimitri furrowed his eyebrows at Claude’s reasoning. He wasn’t _ exactly _ wrong...

“Speaking of work, should you not be heading to your class now, Claude?” 

"Nah, Teach is chill. She doesn’t mind if I’m a few minutes late.”

“Then a couple days ago, was I mistaken on seeing you cleaning the stables alone?”

“Ah well, err… about that one time. I _ might’ve _ done a little something in her classroom…”

Let’s just say that Claude didn’t create an acid that may or may not have accidentally spilled and burned straight through Byleth’s coat sleeves. That day where Byleth stared down at him with her expressionless face, _ absolutely _ terrified him. With a mental reminder to himself, Claude would, from now on, never openly have potions out near Byleth, as he would remember that fateful day. If Byleth caught him in the possession of such potions, she would always give him a face of disapproval. He was never sure it was because of his ill intentions with potions or the memory of her favorite coat being ruined, although it might have been both.

Dimitri furrowed his eyebrows, as he didn’t seem to comprehend what the other meant. Yet, it was typical of him to not understand. The prince could never figure out who Claude was underneath his scheming facade anyways. And well, with most other people too. Lips parted slightly with a question at the tip of his tongue, but he was unfortunately interrupted when there was a loud creaking of the classroom door. 

“Wha… he isn’t here yet?! That’s a first.” Dimitri could hear Ashe say in utter shock. 

Huh, there would be a bit of time to spare, but it was strange. His professor never came late before.

Claude put his hands behind his head, genuine surprise smeared across his face. “Huh. Always thought Professor Hanneman’s class was farther than Teach’s all this time. Guess I know now.” With those pink lips of his curled in a grin, he glanced back at Dimitri and let a small huff of laughter. The amount of confusion pressed against Dimitri’s face was a sight to be laughed at. “I assume our conversation ends here for now. I would explain you the logistics of what happened, however I don’t think Professor Hanneman will like it if I intrude on his own class. Can’t joke on transferring into your class either.”

The prince crossed his arms. “Not only that, I would assume that Professor Hanneman would be unable to deal with you and your antics either.”

“I’ll take your word for that, your Royalness,” Claude responded with a wink.

Dimitri glanced over at the entrance of his classroom; mostly everyone had already entered the room except Dedue. The tall man stood by the door, simply waiting for the blond to come inside. Class was about to begin and soon, he would have to submit to a long, lengthy lecture. How was it that talking with the Golden Deer leader made time go by so fast?

Dimitri exhaled loudly. “Presuming that you will head back to Professor Byleth’s class soon, I guess I will see you at a later time, Claude.” 

Claude chuckled, “Alright then, till next time I’ll see you, dear prince.” Claude shot him one last smile and a dramatic bow before Dimitri watch him run off to his class. Surely enough, the brunet was cutting it close on getting there in time. Typical Claude for being such a risk taker. Taking too many risks for Dimitri’s liking at least. With that, the bells rung, signaling that class was to be in session.

As he watched the brunet finally disappear from his sight, Dimitri made his way into the room alongside Dedue, where he was immediately met with the attention of his childhood friends sitting nearby at a table. Now, he was confused yet again. Did he do something wrong?

“Since when did _ you _ talk this much with Riegan?” Felix questioned, his eyes narrowing in suspicion as Dimitri approached them.

Sylvain looked at Dimitri pitifully. “Our poor boy has been so oblivious… Did he not notice that Claude was picking his mind?”

Ingrid sighed and shook her head, hand pressed against her face before letting it drop down into her lap. “You look too much into this. It is simply just two friends talking with one another. Besides, is it really that odd to talk to someone else from another house? I find myself having a chat with Dorothea once in a while.”

The raven-haired boy rolled his eyes. “Sylvain, neither of us know what they were talking about. As much as the boar prince tends to be stupid, I would _ like _ to believe that he knew what Claude was doing.”

Sylvain let out a huff of disapproval. “I digress! There’s a reason why Claude is a force to be reckoned with in strategics.”

What was he, a child? Of course he knew what Claude was doing! Or… well, _ did _he? Both Felix and Sylvain were really starting to make him doubt his sense of what he knew was a joke or not. Usually he could tell if Claude was joking or not by now, although that was dependent on the nicknames and winks. Although wait, Felix was right; he didn’t usually talk to Claude this much. Not until that meeting under the moon. His mouth pulled into a straight line, as he became lost in thought. Things he didn’t notice before became rather prominent today, he noticed. Specifically with Claude von Riegan.

“And.. we lost him,” Sylvain murmured, a laugh trailing after his words. A lazy grin pulled at the corners of his mouth as he stood up and patted Dimitri on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, your Highness. We’re just joking after all.”

“Not me, it’s more you. I don’t particularly care what nonsense the boar splutters out,” Felix sneered, turning around in his seat.

Sylvain raised his hands up in surrender. “Okay, sure. It’s more me and not the grumpy Felix, I see.”

Dimitri frowned. “I still do not understand what you three mean… Claude did not mention anything about the mock battle during our conversation together. He only told me a little about his class.”

“See? That’s how he gets you,” Sylvain pointed out, looping his arm around Dimitri’s shoulders. 

Knowing all that has happened today, Dimitri could be one hundred percent sure that Ingrid was done with what all Sylvain has done. Getting up from her seat, “I’m sure that’s not how it works _ at all _. In fact, that makes absolutely no sense.” 

With all said and done, the talk soon came to an end at the sound of Hanneman barreling through the doors of the classroom. The poor man looked tired and was sweating up a storm.

“Apologies for all of you who were to be kept waiting! I was unceremoniously given tasks that were pushed off by who I presume was Manuela…” Hanneman trailed off tiredly. “However, since I am here now, please take your seats. I shall continue about our lecture on crests from yesterday.” Immediately at the mention of crests, Dimitri could see his professor’s eyes light up. Not a surprise that Hanneman would be instantly rejuvenated at the sound of his favorite topic to study on. The amount of fervor his professor kept for crests was a bit of a formidable sight.

With the sound of chairs scraping across the wooden floor, Dimitri settled down and realized his seat was right next to Sylvain. No doubt would the ginger want to talk to him during the discussion. So that was that, today would be none other, but a typical school day in the end.

To his dismay, Dimitri was spacing out a bit in class. The amount of sleep he had gotten today was starting to affect him again. He would never fall asleep in class, as the prince thought it showed off an act of disrespect. Yet his notes got a bit sloppy as he tried to focus on Hanneman’s words. The prince jolted in surprise when Sylvain bumped his elbow against his, effectively snapping Dimitri out of it in the process.

Sylvain snickered at his friend’s displeased countenance, though stopped the blond from redirecting his attention back on the lecture by his hand reaching over to pat down on Dimitri’s shoulder.

“Hey, your highness?” the ginger whispered excitedly.

“Yes, Sylvain?” Dimitri mumbled back tiredly. He wasn’t really up to any more questions right now. Although he could tell that Sylvain was itching to tell him something.

Happy that Dimitri allowed him speak, Sylvain leaned in Dimitri’s direction and whispered, “I apologize if I went too far when I was asking who you liked earlier. It’s just that, I’ve always wanted to see a girl on your arm! Also during breakfast, I noticed you had this lovestruck look on your face. Like greatly lovestruck.” 

Lovestruck look?! Dimitri’s face burned as he gave Sylvain an utmost bewildered look. His mouth gaped open in shock. What was Sylvain rambling on about?! There was no one that he had a “crush” on or anything! Was his friend absolutely out of his mind? He always knew that he had trouble showing his true emotions, so for Sylvain to come to a conclusion like this… it didn’t add up. Was he just showing these emotions unconsciously? With what he knew about himself, the prince greatly doubted it.

“Wh―whoa, your Highness, the more you keep your face like that, the more I feel like your eyes will bulge out,” Sylvain remarked with a wave of his hand in front of Dimitri’s face. He laughed when Dimitri’s attention suddenly snapped down to stare at his notes. “I guess you didn’t realize it, huh? I saw you looking at someone during breakfast, though I couldn’t tell who you were looking at.”

At this point, the blond’s face was absolutely _ aflame _ . He really thought no one caught him spacing out. However, that might’ve been Dimitri trying to be strictly in denial to save face. Not only that, he didn’t even mean to be staring at Claude! He was tired from what happened early this morning. There was just **no** way that he could harbor feelings for the heir of the Leicester Alliance, nor was he planning to have any fondness for anyone at the monastery. He enrolled in hopes of getting the justice that the innocent deserved, **not** what Sylvain was saying. Besides, he barely caught himself talking with Claude as much as he did early this morning. Just the thought of this was a weird feeling throughout.

All in all, Dimitri could blame it on his fatigue and that Sylvain was utterly mistaken.

Sylvain balanced on the two back legs of his chair as he began to question Dimitri once again. “So… is she cute? Pretty, in fact? I know you just realized that you probably _ just _ started to like her, but you gotta tell me something so I can avoid accidentally sweeping her off her feet.”

“I―I think you are sorely misguided, Sylvain. I do not find or plan to be in a relationship any time soon,” Dimitri stuttered out, wanting to desperately hide his reddened face from Sylvain’s sight. With what information the ginger understood, Sylvain was basically indirectly asking Dimitri if Claude was “cute” or “pretty” and it was _ absolutely _ embarrassing. Yet he would be lying if he didn’t say that Claude was _ at least _ a bit handsome.

“Really? Your face says otherwise, so I don’t believe you one bit―”

“Dimitri, Sylvain? What are you two talking about over there?” Hanneman spoke, effectively cutting off Sylvain from saying anymore. 

With this, Dimitri found the entirety of the Blue Lions looking straight at the two of them. Felix and Ingrid, who sat in front of them, both shared a look of confusion before directing their attention back at both him and Sylvain. Great, just great, all the attention was on them now. How many more times was Dimitri going to embarrass himself today? 

Sylvain laughed nervously. “Nothing Professor! I just didn’t understand something and asked him for help.” He patted Dimitri’s shoulder in hopes of the blond would back up his statement.

Alright, all he was tasked to do was remain calm about this. In no way possible should he make it obvious that he was trying to cover up things. However, what came out of his mouth said otherwise. 

“Ah, y―yes… he did,” Dimitri blurted out, sounding greatly diffident of himself. Well, he tried his best here.

Wariness was laced in their professor’s eyes. Hanneman seem to greatly doubt the two boys from their reactions, however he didn’t want to be met with more abysmally long excuses and so he didn’t put in much thought. 

“...Very well then. I suggest you two to keep the chatter to a minimum. We are almost done with this lecture after all,” Hanneman remarked as he continued along with his speech.

Dimitri slumped forward, head basically touching the desk as he buried his face in his arms. He could definitely say that he was wide awake, but his face kept a rosiness that reached across his face to the tips of his ears and wouldn’t go away. He lied for what he thought today was going to be. Today, was in fact, **not** a typical school day for him.

These words Sylvain spoke into existence would haunt him for the rest of his day.

With class coming to an end, Dimitri would remember this to be one of, if not, the most eventful lecture he’s experienced so far. The redness across his face, to his dismay, burned across his face for the remainder of the class. Mercedes noticed his agony and questioned if he came down with a fever in the middle of the class. Annette, who was then accompanied by Ashe, told him to head off into the infirmary if he wasn’t feeling well. Then, since there was mention of Dimitri of possibly being sick, Dedue came up to him with concern. 

“Your highness, if necessary, we can find Professor Manuela to help aid you to the infirmary,” came Dedue’s deep voice. Ah, there wasn’t a day where Dedue lacked concern for him, regardless Dimitri assured him that there was absolutely nothing to worry about.

“The boar prince is probably fine. For him to get stupidly sick all of a sudden during class doesn’t add up,” murmured Felix, his eyes looking straight down at Dimitri who desperately was hiding his face from everyone else.

Lips pulled into a smirk as Sylvain decided to clear up the confusion. “Nah, he just won’t fess up that he has a crush. That’s why he’s so red.”

“I very much do not, Sylvain!” exclaimed Dimitri, his head jolting upwards as he met his ginger friend eye-to-eye. Oh, how he wished to dig a hole into the ground like a feral animal and hide away, not letting anyone come near him. There was too much for him to bear.

“So, that was what all the fuss is about earlier?” Ingrid narrowed her eyes towards her friend. “I can not believe you’re still going about that, Sylvain. I thought we cleared this up hours ago when he explicitly stated that he was involved with anyone.” She frowned at the sight of Dimitri’s reddened face. “Yet with just looking at him, I can’t find myself disagreeing with your reasoning.."

“His face could rival the color of Edelgard’s cape,” Felix breathed out, a chuckle coming from the raven-haired boy himself. Bemused, as some of them were, to hear any sort of laughter coming from Felix. As one might call it, this was a rare occurrence for Dimitri, since Felix never even liked being in a two foot radius near him.

A huff of distress fell out from Dimitri’s mouth as he dragged a hand across his face, stifling a groan. He had to maintain his manners as crown prince of course, but the attention over his own problems was overwhelming. He supposed a breath of fresh air and a few hits on the target dummies could do the trick. Sure enough, it was a habit, for he would do this whenever he was feeling overwhelmed. In all honesty, it was always the first thing to come to mind. Felix would say it was just like him to use violence in order to solve his problems, even though Dimitri knew that Felix did the exact same.

With a loud screech of his chair being pushed, Dimitri stood up from his seat. The blush across his face was lessened by a grand amount, in terms of his face only had what were traces of a light pink tint. He faced away from the Blue Lions, unwilling to let them to see further on the state of his well-being. 

“I plan to head off to the training grounds. And… Felix, Sylvain, if you two would like, you may join me in a spar or two,” Dimitri stated in his most confident and surefire voice. Although, he was yet to recover from all the teasing Sylvain pressed upon him, so his voice was a bit shaky throughout.

The ginger looked straight at Dimitri’s back, a little taken back from the prince’s offer. “Huh, did not know that embarrassing your Highness could help him agree to such things. I almost want to take advantage of this...” he mumbled. Yet, he raised his hands in surrender when Dedue told him that there would be problems if Sylvain took these things the wrong way.

“Whatever, I don’t need anything from _ him _ anyways,” Felix remarked, back to his typical attitude with Dimitri. Guess his laughter was much of an ephemeral moment in time. It was as if someone blinked, it would be gone just as fast, or even faster. Yet, the shorter boy narrowed his eyes and spoke, “Let’s see what boar prince is _ truly _ made of.”

And off the Blue Lions went, curious to see how the spar between the three would go by. Ingrid knew the three boys very well, so to witness Sylvain get utterly destroyed by Felix and Dimitri’s forces was no surprise to her. Yet it was a close call between Felix and Dimitri. In the end, Dimitri seemed to be the one victorious, with the blond’s spear pointing straight at the raven-haired boy’s chest.

He’d offer a hand every time the two of them fought one another, but Felix would, of course, reject it by standing up on his own. 

“Don’t give me that look,” Felix spat, looking directly at the small frown that Dimitri always would have at the end of these battles. “I don’t need your offer to help me up either.”

With face flushed red by the amount of time and strenuous effort he spent against his two friends, the prince departed from the training grounds. The rest of the Blue Lions did the same, wanting to tend to their own hobbies by now.

Now at this point he’s sweating up a storm and it’s actually _ disgusting _ how his clothes feel, especially with how tight his uniform is on his body. It doesn’t help that Dimitri is the only one out of the three house leaders who wore armor with the monastery’s uniform. From a small bag, he pulled out a small square of white wooly fabric, something he used as a towel whenever he needed it. With it, Dimitri took a while to wipe away the beads of sweat off his face before he felt something bump against the back of his leg. 

Startled, he almost spilled the contents of his bag across the dirt floor. He swiveled around, expecting to find the perpetrator, but it seemed like no one was there. However, with only a glance down at the grassy floor, the prince found out who it was. It just happened to be a lot smaller than he expected.

It was a small puppy with golden fur that absolutely shone in the sunlight. Dimitri presumed that it was most likely one of the pets that ran rampant across the monastery’s grounds. Although, the blond never understood where all these pets came from. Were they animals that belonged to other students? Or were they just pets of others that lived in the nearby villages? His questions were never given any answers.

The puppy in front of him was absolutely a ball of energy though, as it pawed his leg over and over again while it stood on its hind legs. Unknownst to others, the prince did keep a bit of a soft spot for dogs, but he was always worried that he would hurt them in the process of trying to care for them. For what Dimitri has learned over the course of his life, his strength was much to be feared. Even he found himself to be a little scared of his inability to handle his power.

With training lance still in hand, Dimitri crouched down to be at least a bit more level with the dog. He was still very hesitant, but the puppy insisted for attention by jumping up and down. Dimitri was still wearing his gauntlets too, which made his attempt to pet the dog to be a lot slower and careful. It was an awkward gesture most of the time, but luckily enough, Dimitri found the dog to be nuzzling his hand affectionately as he dragged the palm of his hand down the pet’s back. What a relief it was.

Pets in general would never often be found in a two feet radius near Dimitri. By all means, he was the crown prince, so tending to a dog or a cat would add more to the load of work and effort for servants and retainers. Not only that, young Dimitri wore his heart on his arm, which only meant he was quite sensitive and would cry over the smallest of things. So, if he were to have one of his pets die, he would have cried his heart out in his room.

Back to when he was a child, there was a time where he would beg his father mercilessly for one, but his father would always tell him otherwise. He told a young Dimitri that he would be greatly upset if it had gotten sick or fell to the cold of Faerghus during the winter. With how innocent and naïve he was when he was young, Dimitri had obliged without any further thought.

Lips curled into what appeared as a small smile as he watched the puppy play happily with him. He wasn’t sure what to do next though, as he was inexperienced with having a pet in general. The prince pulled his hand away from the dog, which whined in response and immediately tried to pull his hand back. Yet he had to be going or he would be here for a while. As Dimitri was about to stand up, he didn’t know was about to receive the second shock of his life.

The whispering of, “There you are, your Majesty,” into his right ear.

With how close in proximity it was and the sensitivity of his ear, Dimitri lurched in retaliation, somehow snapping his lance in half and nearly slamming the crown of his head into the other person’s chin. It was fortunate for them that Dimitri only fell backwards.

His blue eyes were met with those green eyes that he was already too acquainted with. Claude von Riegan, his bane of his existence today. Here was Dimitri again, his face burning with the same redness he maintained earlier. He was unsure of it was due to the memory of what Sylvain said earlier in class or from him falling right in front of the brunet. There was evident surprise on Claude’s face though as Dimitri dropped what was his training lance.

“Claude! Please do not pull that on me again!” Dimitri breathed, his hand finding its way over his heart. His heart was racing as fast a horse could go. It was almost a miracle that he didn’t keel over and die.

That shock on Claude’s face melted into a smile before the archer allowed a slight laugh to escape his lips. “Apologies. Did I scare you?” Claude walked over to Dimitri’s left side, making himself comfortable as he sat down. “Never have I seen your strength shown off like that! Remind me to never anger you.” He stated as he held up the broken hilt of Dimitri’s weapon.

“Ah… it happens more often that I would like it to,” Dimitri responded shamefully as he shifted into a comfortable sitting position. He didn’t need to know how many times he was told to be more careful. Prices of weapons always had the habit of lurching between expensive and cheap by obscene amounts and he would be at fault for needing to restock weapons so many times.

“Of course, it never happens to me. I don’t nearly have the amount of strength you wield, hence why I trained up to become an archer,” Claude followed up with a laugh. “I’ve also seen that you’ve found my favorite puppy in the monastery.” The brunet opened his arms, in which the dog happily barreled into. A fit of laughter escaped from Claude’s mouth as he playfully messed with the puppy, who was twisting around and messing up Claude’s uniform robe. The archer eventually brought the dog up close to his face, in which both him and the puppy bumped noses with each other.

Dimitri found himself to be surprised that Claude knew this dog well enough for it to run up to him. “I am sure that it found me first,” he stated as he rubbed the back of his neck, feeling awkwardly left out as he watched both Claude and the dog play around with each other.

Claude raised his eyebrows. “Is that so? Huh, this puppy doesn’t tend to be friendly with a lot of new strangers from what I know. Chased after Lorenz last time I tried to introduce him to other people.”

What a sight that would’ve been to see.

Dimitri leaned over towards the two of them. “Does it have a name?”

Claude pursued his lips, looking straight at the puppy in his hands before he shook his head. “Nope. I always tried to think of one, but I would end up forgetting. Perhaps you could think of one? I imagine your Princeliness can come up with rather grand names.”

Dimitri took a long moment to think of something good, a name that could be worthy for this small dog. He had never owned a pet before, so coming up with a name wasn’t much of an easy task for him. With all the time he used to ponder, Dimitri finally figured out a name that he thought would work out well with the small pet.

With sheer confidence, Dimitri was about to bring this puppy’s name into existence. “Lance,” he breathed out. Lance. Out of all the names he could’ve chosen, _ that _ was the name he chose. 

It’s silent between the two boys for a good amount of time before Claude started to burst out laughing. Dimitri has never seen the other laugh so strongly before nor did he understand the reasoning behind it. He knitted his eyebrows in pure confusion as he watched the archer become teary-eyed from laughter.

The blond frowned slightly. “I do not understand why it’s so funny, Claude.” He watched the tiny puppy squirm within Claude’s grasp, its pink tongue poking out to lick the archer’s cheek. It barked in joy when the archer’s tan fingers came up to scratch it under its chin.

Claude wiped a tear from his eye with his finger, “It’s just like you to name him after your weapon of choice,” he remarked, though as soon as he saw Dimitri widen his eyes in realization, his lips twisted as an attempt to stifle another fit of uncontrollable laughter.

Dimitri looked absolutely _ mortified _. “I―I… that was a sheer coincidence! I did not mean to do such a thing… It was just the first name that came to mind,” the prince stated as he tried to desperately explain himself. Here he was, a loss for words because he was actually terrible at naming things.

While Dimitri looked absolutely panicked, Claude’s face showed otherwise. The hilarity of this whole scene itself only left a smile across his features. “No, I actually think the name is very fitting,” he stated, pulling the puppy away from him to seemingly compare the dog with Dimitri. The archer chuckled, “You both have messy blond hair.”

Dimitri’s mouth gaped open by the slightest. He wasn’t sure how to feel about being compared to a small dog, but with how Claude fondly looked at the animal… he assumed that the brunet wasn’t trying to tease him as usual. At least Dimitri could tell that apart. With lips closed shut, the prince glanced away from the two, as he was unsure how to continue the conversation between them.

“Ah right. I assume you didn’t get Teach’s message to have tea with us, huh?” The archer asked, his green eyes not daring to pull away from the small creature within his hands. 

The blond shook his head in response. “I was not given any notice. What is the occasion?” 

“Teach just wanted to make sure that we were prepared for the mock battle and whatnot with you, me and Princess. Since she was the one to come up with the idea, Teach was basically tasked to make things clear with the three of us about what is going on. Although, she also told me it wasn’t much of a formal meeting either.” Claude let out a huff of amusement when Dimitri gave him a look of doubt. “Don’t worry, Teach’s knows what she’s doing. I have no word in any of this except when I’m on the field.” Putting the dog down to the side, the archer put his hands in front of himself as if he were surrendering, but there was always a wink that told the prince otherwise. “Not saying that tinkering behind the scenes wouldn’t be so bad either.”

Typical, typical Claude. His doubt lied in the right areas. Dimitri watched the dog waddle its stubby legs towards him, a sigh escaping from his lips. “Claude, have you no honor?”

“I do! It’s just when there’s a prize on the line, the lines get a little blurred.”

“Claude…”

“But, _ ahem _ , I should’ve brought you to Teach a long time ago. Teach just told me to go find you and bring you by my side since she thought the message got lost in transit. It’s just that _ Lance _ is quite the distraction!” And with that, Claude got up on his feet, which caught the attention of the puppy and it came crashing into the brunet’s foot. A cute act from the puppy let laughter spill freely from Claude before the archer looked at Dimitri, who also followed suit in standing up from the floor. “If anything, I think Princess might round the corner to find us soon―”

“Boys,” came a voice. As soon as that voice spoke, Dimitri recognized who it was.

Claude gasped dramatically. “By the word of the Goddess, here she is.”

There in front of the two was the third house leader, Edelgard von Hresvelg, the leader of the Black Eagles. She stood with her arms crossed and her long white hair flowing behind her. The girl maintained a look of disappointment in her lilac-colored eyes that Dimitri was greatly familiar with when they were kids.

“Professor Byleth asked me to go find you two since Claude had yet to come back with you, Dimitri.” Her eyes looked down to find the small puppy skidding over, sticking out its tongue and wagging its tail in front of her. “I assume that this is the reason for your delay.”

“My apologies,” Dimitri responded with a shameful bow of his head. Had he known earlier that Byleth requested his presence, he would’ve made his way over earlier. For a small dog to distract him from everything else seemed like an embarrassing reason to explain his tardiness.

“Mmm… caught red-handed by the next emperor of the Adrestian Empire herself. Although Princess, you can’t say you haven’t been guilty of indulging yourself to reach over and pet one of them, right?” Claude questioned smugly, leaning in towards Edelgard’s direction. “I think one the time I’ve seen the princess fawn over something was over a cat with fur that could rival the horses here.”

Edelgard frowned and knitted her eyebrows together, her hands clenched into fists as a light blush dusted over her cheeks. “Claude, I am not here to hear what you may or may have not seen. I was solely here for the task of bringing you two back to Professor Byleth.”

“But what if I said that cat was right behind you?”

Dimitri took it on his own abide to peek behind Edelgard. There was no cat. He couldn’t help himself and furrowed his eyebrows together in Claude’s direction, giving him a look of disapproval. 

“Claude,” Edelgard remarked sternly, seemingly getting more flustered with the archer’s words by the minute. “I will not fall for your tricks nor your lies.”

Claude laughed, his eyes crinkling in amusement as he watched Edelgard started to get riled up with him. “Sorry, sorry! It’s hard to resist when I witnessed the whole thing take place with my own two eyes,” he explained with a toothy grin. “But hey, since we’re all here, shall we head on back?”

“We should. Professor Byleth must tire of waiting for us… I will give her my deepest apologies when we arrive,” Dimitri declared with a shake of his head. A frown washed over his features. Like some people, Dimitri always prefered not to be such a burden to others and would stray away in any scenarios where he was. 

Edelgard turned to face Dimitri, her eyes sharp as she spoke. “Then, let us make a good effort to use whatever time we have left to go over things with her. Time is irreversible after all, so there is no point in dwelling over what is already done.” Ah, how it was always like Edelgard to talk to him like this. She sometimes was like an older sibling. Something that never changed since they were kids, huh?

“Hey, just knowing Teach, she’d wait five years for us if she could,” Claude pointed out with a grin. “Well, she waits for me whenever I’m late to class at least. And besides, Teach said it was a last-minute decision and meetup anyways.”

With everything done and all, the three of them went off together after sending the small puppy back its way to the courtyard and putting away Dimitri’s belongings. With their capes flowing behind them, carried by the light breeze, they held friendly banter over who would win the mock battle. With such sheer happiness and tranquility, it was a moment that they could only wish would last forever.

“Ah, there you are,” came Byleth’s voice as the three house leaders approached her at the tea table. She had already laid out three cups and was pouring hot tea into each of them. It seemed a bit crowded, since the table looked like it was only meant for two people rather than four, yet somehow Byleth had been able to make due with what she had.

“Apologies for our tardiness, Professor, I was not given notice that I was to be invited and have tea with everyone else here,” Dimitri spoke up. He let himself bow ever so slightly out of respect.

Byleth shook her head, “It is alright. I can only assume that you three would also wait for me if that were the case.” A bit daunting it was for Byleth to say that, but she always was rendered emotionless sometimes, so messages had the chance of being conveyed incorrectly. “You three may sit. I’ve prepared chamomile tea for all of you to enjoy,” she said with a hint of a smile on her lips.

“So… exactly what’s the deal, Teach?” Claude asked as the three of them settled down in their seats. “Heard this is going to be unlike any other mock battle.”

Dimitri found himself to be stuck in the middle of the three chairs which wasn’t comfortable knowing how everything was pushed together. 

“First of all, the mock battle as you three know, will occur tomorrow. I thought to present you the logistics of it all again to make sure each of you understand what you can and...” Byleth paused for a moment to glance in Claude’s direction, ”..._ cannot _ do.”

Claude let out a startled noise before laughing sheepishly. “What can I say? It’s in my blood.”

A lot more work and effort seemed to be put into this battle. It just was a bit surprising, but Dimitri took it as a welcome challenge. While Byleth began to explain the premises of it again, he tried his best to grasp onto the tea cup in front of him, his gauntlet making him have to try more than he had to. Although, all of it was in vain when Claude accidentally bumped into his arm, allowing the entirety of the contents in the cup to spill all over his face.

Dimitri yelped out in surprise and in pain, as the tea was indeed, piping hot. He winced, it absolutely stung. With his eyes shut, Dimitri desperately tried to grasp for a napkin or _ something _, but it just seemed like there was absolutely nothing he could use. 

He could hear Edelgard letting out a noise of surprise as Claude quickly asked Byleth if she had anything on her. Dimitri would try to attempt to do something to help himself, but his gauntlets, of course, were not much of use. It was only after he caught the sound of feet shuffling around that he felt the light touches of a thin piece of cloth wiping at his face. As the pain started to numb away, he let his blue eyes flutter open and was met with Claude’s concerned expression. Apparently, Byleth barely had any napkins on hand and Claude managed the one she had, but it wasn’t enough for the amount that spilled. Hence both Byleth and Edelgard went off to the dining hall to fetch some more.

“Gah! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean for that to happen...” the archer exclaimed, a grimace pulling at his features. There was genuine concern was laced in those green eyes of his as he gently wiped the blond’s face with the cloth. Admittedly, this was an awkward position to be in, especially since Dimitri was unable to see much of anything else besides Claude’s face.

Yet when the archer’s slender fingers were gently placed on Dimitri’s shoulder to steady him, it startled the prince and he grasped Claude’s wrist by reflex. Claude jolted and his eyes widened slightly at the sudden movement. Neither of them were expecting it, so Dimitri looked away in shame, letting his grip loosen a bit around the archer’s arm.

“Apologies, but I think I am able to handle it from now on,” the prince said quietly as Claude gave him a nod of his head and handed Dimitri the square piece of cloth. It seemed like the archer took action solely without much thought of was he was actually doing, which rarely occurred.

“I should be the one saying sorry.. I went a little too far with my actions,” the brunet responded solemnly. Claude leaned forward ever so slightly, sighing and frowning as he saw the state of Dimitri’s face. “Did it hurt a lot? Your face is still red.”

“There is no need for worries, Claude. It only stung for a short while.” Dimitri wiped what he could with the already soaked napkin. It was very thin, so it didn’t help as much as he would’ve liked it to. 

The area where the tea splashed may have left his face a little red, but now he wasn’t so sure if it was the tea that made his face burn or his blush from Claude having to help him like he was a child. He couldn’t find any words to say back to the brunet, so all Dimitri could manage as a response was him looking away from Claude and giving a slight nod of his head as Claude’s (unbelievably warm) hand pulled away from his shoulder.

Was it him or did the sun shine down even stronger? It seemed a bit too warm for Dimitri’s liking. _Too_ warm, perhaps.

His heart raced, from what he presumed was when he was shocked by the burning liquid splashing across his face. However, he noticed his hand trembled as he held the piece of cloth in hand. It just seemed to get warmer and warmer and it was getting more uncomfortable.

Now not only did his face burn, but his whole body felt like it was on fire. The blue collar around his neck felt like it was choking him.

Eventually, both Edelgard and Byleth came back with more napkins in hand. Byleth asked him if he was alright while Edelgard told Claude to be more careful next time. Dimitri, of course, nodded his head in response and took the napkins, but said nothing about it and asked to be excused instead. This garnered looks of concern from Edelgard and Claude. 

It was understandable, the tea splashing onto Dimitri did create a bit of a mess on his clothes. So Byleth allowed him to depart, telling him that she would spare him the details later in the day. However, Dimitri was unable to focus on her words, so he apologized that he could not stay long in the end, despite all the efforts to go and find him. The prince then quickly told her his thanks and politely excused himself. 

Now, Dimitri began to walk away from them, unaware of the regretful look Claude sent his way. It wasn’t like he was upset, it was more like he was just… confused? Bewildered even. Was he coming down with a fever or something? As he walked past other students and faculty in the monastery, Dimitri realized he didn’t know where he was going. He just felt the need to get out of there because the air surrounding him felt absolutely suffocating.

Just, what happened over there? None of what he experienced there made any sense to him. With the sun’s rays beating down on him, he could only assume that the lightheadedness he was feeling at this very moment was due to how hot the weather became. 

That was the only thing that made sense after all. 

Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is like... a monster dfghfdgutim im so sorry for not updating for a month! ;; school has been getting in the way but i'm making up for lost time by delivering this whopping 13k for you guys to read!! (also i did edit chapter 1 for character personalities sake, so if you could, please check it out again!! ;__;)
> 
> heh if this chapter was called smth else it probably would've been "dimitri is a blushing mess for the entire time because he keeps getting embarrassed" haha anyways i love the dynamic of the blue lions so i hope i did them justice!! ;___; dfjghfdg criticism is much appreciated and i would love to hear your guys' feedback! 
> 
> and of course i had to give what intsys couldn't give us: edelgard/dimitri/claude friendship and petting the pets >:(( sdkfuhgfdg
> 
> also thank you all though for 1k hits and 100 kudos aaa!! we appreciate every single one of you guys <3 hope yall ready for that mock battle next chapter >:3c


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